


The Leprechaun King and the Fairy Queen

by MagdaTheMagpie



Series: Marvel & Magic [28]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Acceptance, F/M, Mistaken Identity, Self-Acceptance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 07:20:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16849621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagdaTheMagpie/pseuds/MagdaTheMagpie
Summary: Bruce discovers a whole new world he never knew existed after a fairy helps him out of the hole the Hulk left him in.





	The Leprechaun King and the Fairy Queen

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Marvelously Magical group holidays event: Enchanted Wonders.  
> My prompts were: cursed necklace & dancing.

 

Bruce has no idea where he is. Still in India hopefully, but he's crossed countries before without realizing it, and he knows for certain he hulked out. The state of his clothes are a good enough indicator of that, so is the crater he woke up in. He hates it all so much. The lack of control over his own body and mind, over his whole messed up life. If only he could end it…

 

“Yeah, I know you won't let me,” Bruce mutters when he feels the Hulk stir inside.

 

With a sigh, he picks himself up, holding up what's left of his pants and looks up at the edge of the crater. That's going to be a bitch to climb out of. The ground is soft, his feet sink into the mushy earth and there is nothing to hold unto. After his fourth attempt, he gives up and sits back in his hole. Talk about digging your own grave. It's freezing too. At this rate, he might as well hulk out and let the big guy bounce out of here. He has no idea where he is though. Not India after all. It's too damp and cold. But what if there's a city nearby?

 

“Found you!”

 

Startled, Bruce holds his heart, willing it to slow down. At the edge of the pit, he can see a pale face with even paler hair looking down at him. He has no earthly idea who that is, but when she waves at him, he waves back.

 

“Don't suppose you have some rope up there? Or a ladder?”

 

Chances are next to nill, so he's not surprised when she shakes her head.

 

“Don't move. I'll get you out.”

 

Suddenly he's floating up, very slowly, as if she had somehow turned off gravity for him. He enjoys the feeling of weightlessness right up until he starts tilting around and ends up with his head upside down.

 

He stops going up when he finds himself nose to nose with his rescuer. She's beautiful, even upside down, even if her large blue eyes are a bit unsettling.

 

“Thank you,” he says. “I'm Bruce.”

 

“Luna,” she answers as she reaches for him to spin him around, right side up.

 

Then gravity returns. Her hands are still on him though, and it's weird because he's half naked and now she poking him with her index.

 

“That's a really good disguise you have.”

 

“I'm… not wearing one.”

 

It should be obvious. He's not wearing much of anything.

 

“But you were really big, and really green when you fell down.”

 

“Uhm, yes. I suppose you could say _that_ was my disguise. This is the real me.”

 

Hulk is not happy about being dismissed so casually, but he's oddly quiet about it for once.

 

“Oh,” her face falls as if she disappointed by all his normalcy. She is. “I thought I'd finally found the Leprechaun King.”

 

Bruce laughs, but it peters out when he realizes she's serious.

 

“There's no such thing. Right?”

 

But who knows? In a world where a giant green rage monster exists, _anything_ is possible. Even her, with her ethereal beauty and the way she switches gravity on and off like its nothing.

 

“Are you a fairy or something?”

 

Her laugh is as delicate as bells, and as otherworldly as the rest of her. The Other Guy is pleased. His rumble of content makes it through him and it sounds like he’s purring. Bruce blushes all the way down to his shredded pants.

 

“You’re not wrong. They wanted to make me Queen, but their crown was too small. I introduced them to the concept of democracy though. They’ve taken to it quite well.”

 

She startles a laugh out of him. She sounds so serious as she says the most outlandish things. Heck, he wants to believe in her stories, because how much more wonderful would the world be if they were true.

 

And he’s tempted to believe she is in fact a fairy, because when he shivers, she makes clothes appear; when it starts raining, the drops don't touch them; when his stomach rumbles, he's suddenly on the edges of a town. A quaint little English town by the looks of it, with Christmas lights up and the sound of carols in the streets.

 

“Won’t you come with me? The least I can do is offer you coffee.” He hopes to follow that with dinner or at least get her number to invite her whenever she’s free. He doesn't want to let her go, and neither does the Other Guy.

 

“I’d love to but I can’t.”

 

“Of course. I guess you have plans,” he says, waving at the Christmas decorations. Had he missed Christmas? It wouldn’t be the first time he hulked out for several days.

 

“No, no, it’s not that.” Her smile is brittle now. It doesn’t suit her at all.

 

“Is something wrong?”

 

“I don’t want to bother you.”

 

“You? Bother me? You just saved me from wandering half-naked across the English countryside in the middle of winter. I think you’re entitled to bother me all you want.” She hesitates, her gaze shifting from his face to her feet to the village further down the road. “Please?”

 

“I _can’t_ take a step closer. I was cursed and can’t approach humans or human dwellings.”

 

Bruce furrows his brow.

 

“ _I’m_ human.”

 

“No, you’re not,” she laughs off.

 

Well, that’s news to him. Despite his alter-ego, he’d still considered himself human. He was born human after all.

 

“What happens if you do?”

 

“It’s painful.”

 

She grimaces so he doesn’t insist, but asks her story all the same. His stomach can wait. The fairy queen makes a sofa appear on the muddy side of the road. It’s so incongruous, he can’t help smiling at the sight of the purple monstrosity. He takes a seat next to her and has to admit it’s quite comfortable while she tells her tale.

 

Once upon a time, there was a curious girl who liked magical creatures so much, she traveled across the world to befriend them all. In so doing, she found an evil witch who hunted them down and cut them in pieces to make her dark potions. The girl denounced her and lead the kingdom’s guards to her lair. Put in chains, the evil witch used the last of her powers to throw a curse at her in revenge.

“Since you like your little critters so much,” she cackled. “They will be your only company forevermore.”

 

“So when I saw you falling nearby, I thought you were the Leprechaun King and might be able to break the curse,” she finishes, tapping a gaudy necklace around her neck.

 

“Sorry,” Bruce says, then points at the piece of jewelry. “Is that the curse?”

 

Luna nods.

 

“I tried everything I could think off to take it off. I even asked a dragon to breath on it, but it only singed my eyebrows off. Basilisk venom might have worked, but I can’t access the carcass of the last one that was slain.”

 

The Hulk growls, whether because he takes this as a challenge or because he truly wants to help, Bruce isn’t sure, but he’s not going to stop him. Not this time.

 

“Mind if I try? I’m going to shift into... the green thing. Try not to scream? He hates it when people scream at him.”

 

Before she can answer, Hulk is already taking over and he loses himself to the rage.

 

“Little Fairy,” Hulk grunts.

 

“Big Leprechaun,” Luna says and curtsies.

 

Banner is an imbecile. She has no fear in her at all in her. He points at the tiny bauble around her slender neck, then at his index. His fingers are too big to handle the cursed thing himself. She understands him though and lays the necklace as far as she can, her face pressed against the side of his index without the slightest hesitation.

 

“No move,” he orders and brings his thumb down, crushing the evil thing into fine dust.

 

Hulk pulls his fingers apart to free her of the remnants of the necklace's chain. He then wipes them on his newly shredded pants, smiling at the thought of how annoyed Banner was going to be at finding himself naked again.

 

“Good Fairy,” he says and pats her head as softly as he can. “Pretty Fairy.”

 

He lets Banner take over. He did more than enough for the ungrateful twerp

 

Bruce shivers and blushes simultaneously when he comes back to himself. He can _feel_ the Other Guy laughing at him, but okay, he deserved that. He should have thought of undressing first before transforming. Thankfully, Luna make his clothes reappear again. Just for that, he should make sure to keep her around.

 

“How about that coffee now?”

 

She’s more than happy to tag along and he’s fascinated by the way she walks. It’s as if she’s dancing to her own tune. It’s very subtle, but draws every eye in the vicinity, causing the Hulk to growl protectively.

 

“Of course I won’t let anything happen to her. Calm down.”

 

But something does. They’re on their second order of tea and cakes (because their coffee was too atrocious to be ordered a second time) when a man appears out of nowhere. He looks like he rolled out of bed with his dark hair sticking out every which way, and even his glasses are askew.”

 

“Hello Harry,” Luna chirps happily.

 

The other man sputters for a few minutes while Luna explains to him he’s a dear friend, that they went to school together and that he’s full of Nargles. At this point, Bruce just rolls with it and invites him to sit down with them now that he’s ruined his date.

 

“We thought you were dead! You disappeared. I looked _everywhere_ for you!”

 

“It was a curse. I’m all better now though, don’t worry. The Leprechaun King saved me.”

 

Harry’s brow furrows.

 

“Who?”

 

“That’ll be me,” Bruce says, offering his hand to shake. “But you can call me Bruce. Leprechaun King is a bit of a mouthful.”

 

The handshake is limp. It's probably shock.

 

“Okay. Listen Luna, I'm sorry to ask, but I left the party as soon as I got a hit on your location. Ginny and the kids are probably worried sick I just up and left without an explanation. Would you mind coming back with me? I'm not letting you out of my sight again. Not today.”

 

“What's today?” he and Luna ask at the same time.

 

“Christmas," he sounds outraged they didn't know. "Please? You'll be the best present there. Everyone's missed you.”

 

Luna looks at him and he thinks this is it, this is where they part ways, but she grabs his hand instead, holding it tight.

 

“Can I bring Bruce?”

 

“Erm… yeah, of course. Why not? I'm sure everyone will be curious to meet a dark haired, six feet tall leprechaun. The more, the merrier, right? Meet me at Grimmauld Place?”

 

Luna nods and Harry disappears. No one in the pub seems to notice all the insanity happening right under their noses. Maybe he's still dreaming after all, stuck at the bottom of the his crater.

 

“What's he then?” he asks, because as much fun as it was to confuse the disheveled man, his curiosity is killing him.

 

“A wizard.”

 

“Oh, right. Never met one before.”

 

“I'll introduce you to plenty more if you want. And there will be a half giant there too I'd wager. Werewolves, a metamorphmagus, half-veelas - but don't get too close to them.”

 

“What about Santa?” Bruce asks, because he'd been pretty sure a few days ago he didn't exist, but now…

 

“Santa is too busy this time of year, silly. But you'll enjoy the party. There's always lots of food, enchanted music instruments, and dancing too! Do you like to dance?”

 

Bruce does not, he has two left feet most of the time and music only seems to confuse them more. But he's willing to try with Luna.

 

“There's always mistletoe, too,” she adds with too much nonchalance.

 

“Mistletoe?”

 

Do fairies and wizards use mistletoe like normal people? Her dreamy smile and mischievous eyes tells him it is.

 

“At every door,” she confirms. “And there are a lot of doors where we're going, so you better not leave my side.”

 

Bruce can already tell this is his best Christmas to date. Even the Hulk, who has always hated it, grunts in approval. Maybe they have finally found their place in the world.

 

**Author's Note:**

> For a reading by RKRM production, you can go here and send them love:
> 
> <https://youtu.be/5kbqjaPQXIo>


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